Attorney fees

Matter of R.F. Lafferty & Co., Inc. v Winter, 2018 NY Slip Op 03489 [1st Dept. 2018]

Respondent also argues that the arbitration award should be vacated based on the doctrines of comity and res judicata. However, she waived these arguments by commencing the arbitration proceeding (see e.g. Bortman v Lucander, 150 AD3d 417 [1st Dept 2017]).

Respondent argues that the award of attorneys' fees to petitioner exceeded the arbitrator's power because the arbitration agreement did not expressly provide for attorneys' fees (see CPLR 7513; Kidder, Peabody & Co. v McArtor, 223 AD2d 502, 503 [1st Dept 1996]). However, both parties demanded attorneys' fees, and "mutual demands for counsel fees in an arbitration proceeding constitute, in effect, an agreement to submit the issue to arbitration, with the resultant award being valid and enforceable" (Matter of Goldberg v Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP, 52 AD3d 392, 392-393 [1st Dept 2008], lv denied 11 NY3d 749 [2008]; see also [*2]Matter of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. v Pritchard, 107 AD3d 476 [1st Dept 2013]).